


You Win

by xZealHakune



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Bonding, Character Study, Friendship, Gen, I love these two!, Nebula and Tony Stark Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-02-10 15:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18662875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xZealHakune/pseuds/xZealHakune
Summary: A series of oneshots showing interactions between Nebula and Tony Stark as the unlikely duo travel through space, or more float adrift in space.Will likely end up featuring Avengers: Endgame spoilers! Read at you own risk!





	1. Paper Football

**Author's Note:**

> If you told me my first MCU fanfic would be a Nebula fic after I finished Guardians of the Galaxy, i'd laugh in your face. If you told me after I finished Guardians of the Galaxy 2, i'd tell you unlikely but possible. If you told me after Endgame, i'd tell you most definitely.

“You win.”

Nebula froze upon hearing those words. Two words, that in recent years, she had begun to think would never be directed towards her. However, she imagined it would happen after she finally bested Gamora in combat, after pushing her sister into an unwinnable situation and forcing her to say it or hearing those words from Father’s mouth as he finally placed the affectionate gaze, the one he would give Gamora, towards her. Nebula had never guessed that she would hear it from a mech-wielding Terran while they were stranded on that idiot Quill’s ship, lightyears away from the nearest civilized planet.

She slouched back into her chair, scanning Stark’s features for any hint of foul play or trickery. Was this some sort of special rule where he could trick, her into surrendering? Had she actually won? Stark must’ve noticed her skepticism because he spoke up.

“Fair game,” he said as he stretched his open hand across the table. Nebula remained wary as her eyes dropped to the hand and he continued, “Good sportsmanship.”

Strangely enough, Nebula found herself accepting the handshake. A smile tugged at Stark’s lips that she assumed meant to assure her that he enjoyed the game or something along those lines and she merely nodded. The sensors of her hand’s bionics picked up the warmth of Stark’s palm. The warmth of organic flesh. Her lips drew into a line and she hastened to end the handshake and backed into her chair.

“Did you have fun?” Stark asked as he placed the paper footballs that had been tossed about back onto the table.

"Yes… I did.” Nebula replied. Recreational activities were a foreign concept to her. Father never made time to participate in such activities with her, and she never dared to ask. Gamora rarely chose to interact with Nebula unless they were on a mission assigned by father or they were engaged in combat. And besides that, there was no one else to even engage in civil conversation with. The Kree weren’t the friendliest race of people. When Stark had suggested they play a game to “kill some time”, she had assumed that he was going to hold the rations or control of the ship at stake, but to her surprise Stark purely wanted to play the game for fun.

Terrans were a strange lot. Who had been so idiotic that they would turn to paper for recreation besides writing or the arts? She found the idea of “paper football”, as Terrans had dubbed it, ridiculous. There was no complex strategy or tactics that could be employed, and the game was incredibly simple, but she couldn’t help but find the meaningless, trivial activity relaxing and refreshing considering their current situation. The heat of the competition – as least her competitive passion as Stark didn’t seem to have been taking the game as seriously – mad her forget about the tragedy that had only occurred the previous day. The rage at her sister’s death, hell even her sister’s group of idiots’ deaths, had been quelled by a feeling of victory that had risen in her chest. A feeling incredibly alien to Nebula. It wasn’t the battle victory she had always dreamed about, but Nebula still felt immense satisfaction at the achievement as a smile tugged at her lips.

But something still didn’t feel right.

“Is congratulating an opponent on their victory over you a Terran tradition?” She couldn’t keep the residual skepticism from seeping out of her voice.

Stark chuckled. A weak chuckle at best as he nearly broke into a coughing fit, likely due to the small amounts of food and water they had begun to ration. “Well, I’m not sure if it’s only an Earth tradition, considering most of the aliens I’ve met have tried to butcher me, but most people do it.” Another smile graced his lips before he frowned and raised a finger. “I take that back, most humans are dicks. A lot of the time they’ll probably curse you out or threaten to beat you up, depends on the person.” He shrugged.

Nebula nodded before picking up one of the paper footballs and running her fingers across the surface. Those two words from Stark had made her feel incredibly… happy, and Nebula knew why. For so long she had desperately wanted to hear Father to congratulate her on defeating Gamora in combat because that not only meant she would finally avoid the horrid punishment that came with each defeat, but also that she had earned acknowledgement for him. Acknowledgement as a warrior. Acknowledgement as a daughter.

She wanted some form of congratulations from Gamora too because it meant she would finally acknowledge her as a sister, not some opponent to continuously destroy in combat. Even when Nebula had “beaten” Gamora on Ego’s planet, Gamora had denied that, but Stark found no issue claiming her as the winner. In fact, he seemed to take delight in the fact that she had grown so accustomed to the rules of the game that she had managed to win. Stark’s words showed that he had acknowledged her as a person, and that made her feel good.

Nebula began finding herself liking Stark, although she would never admit that to his face. She didn’t know what to think of him at first. He seemed to be taking the whole “50% of the universe destroyed” easily- she did see him blankly stare off into space every now and then though.  But she was starting to think he was a genuinely good person.

“Want to play again?” Stark said as he placed the completed stack of paper footballs in front of her.

“Yes, I would like that,” Nebula said much louder and brighter than she had been speaking earlier. Stark’s face contorted into a smirk and she was sure some form of light blush would’ve formed on her face had her face still been organic.


	2. Cursed with Knowledge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the kind comments! Your happiness make me just as happy!

“Strange question,” Tony began as he wiped sweat from his brow and paused his current work to raise a brow towards Nebula. The black undershirt he was wearing was drenched in sweat, indicating how much work he had been putting in. The Benatar’s engine wasn’t going to get running without some hard work. “You’re some type of natural, sapient cyborg, right?” Stark didn’t pause long enough for Nebula to speak. “Do cyborgs dream of electric sheep?”

Nebula quirked a confused eyebrow towards Stark. “What are sheep?”

Stark shook his head with a quirked smirk. “Never mind, that was a Terran joke.” He chuckled to himself before hunching back over the engine.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Well actually I’m a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Might have to do a rain check on the idiot thing, but I’m sure lots of people would agree with you.”

Nebula rolled her eyes. She didn’t even have to see his face to know that he had that trademark smug smirk of his. Still, she wouldn’t say it to him, but Stark was keeping her entertained on their pit stop in the middle of the cosmos, though she could deal with him making less Terran jokes she couldn’t get.

This joke was different and Stark’s words echoed through her mind like a pest that refused to die. Her eyes shifted down towards her bionic arm, the first of many bionic implants she would receive from losing in a bout with Gamora. It was a reminder of her failures, and a reminder of her hatred towards her father.

“I am not a natural cyborg,” Nebula blurted. A description like that annoyed her. It assumed that she was like this since birth, as if having bionics instead of flesh was some type of norm. Every day, the bionics on her felt more and more normal, and it filled her with terror to think that she may one day forget the times where she was fully organic.

“Every single bionic on me was a replacement for an organic one.” Her voice was monotonous and empty. Nebula lifted her hand as if for show, and slowly curled into a fist. The feeling of metallic fingers meeting her palm filled her with disgust.

“That’s interesting, I’m more a fan of equipping metal to blow stuff up than getting transplants, but to each their own,” Stark gave another chuckle which was met by silence and he turned his head towards her.

“Don’t you find it foolish that you teamed up with the daughter of your enemy?” Nebula stared at Stark with a blank, but piercing gaze. It had been a question that had bugged her the entire time they had been aboard the ship.

“Wasn’t expecting that change of topic,” Stark whistled, closing the hatch of the engine and wiping his face with a small napkin. He spared a glance at Nebula before picking up a cup of bottled water. He scanned the bottle as though he were unfamiliar with the brand – which he probably was considering he was Terran – before taking a drink. “Well for one thing, I saw you try to kill him, so I’m assuming you have some complex daddy issues.” He lifted his index finger.

“For every battle I lost against my sister, Thanos would take some body part from me and replace it with a robotic one… I _never_ won a single battle against her,” Nebula’s voice was tinted in a raspy anger.

“Thus, proving my point,” Stark said before pausing. Nebula was surprised he didn’t have more of a profound reaction to her comment. “I apologize for calling you a cyborg, if that means anything.”

Nebula didn’t speak for a moment in silent, expressionless shock. She hadn’t expected him to apologize it, but she did appreciate the sentiment. “Thank you.”

He nodded before continuing, “Second, you helped – wow, where did this water come from its really refreshing,” Tony broke off his train of thought with curiosity.

“Xander,” Nebula simply said with a tone of voice saying that she wasn’t interested in elaborating and that she wanted him to continue with his reasoning.

“Sheesh, I was just asking,” Stark mumbled. “Anyway, you closed my wound,” Stark lifted his undershirt and pointed at the wound that had been sealed thanks to her help. “I’m assuming you wouldn’t do that just to stab me in the back.”

“And third, I’m sure being stranded in the middle of space is a lot better when you’re not fearfully awaiting to get back-stabbed.” He shrugged.

Nebula nodded. She was strangely glad that Stark wasn’t suspicious of her, it made his interactions with her seem more genuine. Besides, he was right, space did seem a lot better when you weren’t mistrusting of the other person.

“We should keep trying to fix the engine. The sooner the engine’s fixed, the sooner I can find Thanos,” Nebula said as she lifted the hatch of the engine and began her own work on it.

“You’re going after Thanos?” She heard Stark ask with a voice filled with curiosity at her statement. Nebula raised a brow. Shouldn’t it have been obvious that she was going after Thanos?

“Yes, Thanos killed my sister, regardless of his plan with the Infinity Stones working or not, I want his lifeless body.” Nebula said monotonously, pausing her work. Stark nodded in silence, and Nebula asked the question that she knew she wanted an answer to. “And what will you do?”

Stark remained ominously silent as his eyes drifted away from Nebula and into the cosmos put on display by the ship’s front-facing window.

The cosmos this deep in space were beautiful, but Nebula could not come to appreciate it. Her mind was coated with anxiety and fear on whether they would survive long enough and be able to fix the ship, grief at the death of her sister (a new feeling to her as she had only been filled with rage at she realized what happened to her), and exhaustion thanks to the fact that they had to begin rationing the food. And Nebula was sure Stark had felt a similar way. But there was another feeling buried deep inside her. The true reason why she couldn’t look at the cosmos in awe.

Did she even deserve to be able to glance at something so magnificent? She had lost to Thanos, failed to avenge her sister, and she had failed at the task she had given herself since she had left on her journey alone on Ego’s planet.

“We lost…” Stark uttered, his voice weak, tired, and defeated. That was right, Stark had lost too. “50% of the universe is gone and that’s on me.” He covered his face in his hands and he took a deep breath. “That bastard gave me nightmares that filled me with dread. I vowed that I wouldn’t let that nightmare come to fruition and I upgraded my suit to be stronger, faster, better, but at the end of the day that nightmare became a reality.”

He seemed to dig his face further into his face as a sob so quiet came out that Nebula was sure she was only able to hear it thanks to her enhanced bionic eardrums. “Everyone I care about could be gone. Peter… Happy… Rhodey… Pepper…” Nebula had pieced together that the kid he spoke on must’ve been the web-slinging kid she had caught a glimpse of on Titan, and she assumed that everyone else were people he cared dearly about. Nebula hadn’t thought of what Stark must’ve been feeling in regard to losing, and for some reason it made her feel terrible. She couldn’t imagine the grief that he must’ve been feeling.

She knelt so she was at his eye-level, although his face was still buried into his face. “And that’s exactly why we must find the strength to stand up and take vengeance on him, so that their deaths don’t stay in vain.” Nebula gulped. Stark’s tone of voice was indicating the obvious. He had given up, and she wasn’t going to sit around and allow that to happen. “We can’t give u-“

“All we can do is give up!” Stark yelled as his face moved out of his hand. “This piece of shit is beyond repair with the equipment we have! At best we’ll last 14 more days and we’re light-years from any chance of rescue… we’re going to die here,” his voice ended on a sullen note. A note of acceptance of his fate without a hint of resistance.

At first, Nebula wanted to yell at him for his sudden outburst when she was just trying to help him, but she realized that she had done something like Gamora on Ego’s planet. She felt the sudden urge to punch him across the face for giving up so early. Where was the strangely calm optimism from earlier? The egotistical undertones that he gave when he made Earth jokes with the full knowledge that she wouldn’t get them? They were crumpled over his knowledge of the inevitable.

And it was at that point that Nebula realized that what Stark spoke of _was_ inevitable, and she felt dread crawl into her every fiber. She didn’t want to die here. Her life had been ruled by Father for so long and she had only been freed from his oppressing grip for but a fleeting second, and now it was all over before it had even began.

She glanced at Stark and saw, through a strangely blurry left eye, that tears were flowing down his exhausted, disheveled face. Nebula began to wonder how long he had kept the truth from her. How long had he been cursed with this knowledge as he made desperate day-to-day attempts to fix the ship? How had he managed to smile and joke to her with the knowledge that he was going to die here? It was Stark’s calm disposition that had managed to keep her from falling into a despairing frenzy to make every attempt possible to get the ship running. Instead she was able to relax and think clearly thanks to him, but now he had given up.

It was at that moment that Nebula realized that Stark was an incredibly strong man. Far stronger than Father could ever hope to be, but even the strongest beings felt sadness, and when someone felt sadness there was only one thing you could do about it. It was something Gamora had taught her.

So, despite her growing despair, the fact that her arms were shaking as though she was stuck in some polar vortex, and the fact that she wanted to desperately try and get the ship to work, Nebula place her arms around Stark and hugged him. It was the best form of emotional support she could muster as she wasn’t great with words. Stark remained motionless, but he didn’t resist.

A dribble of liquid fell from Nebula’s chin, and she realized that the warm feeling on her cheeks had been tears. She was certain she needed this hug just as much as he did.


End file.
